Midway through T37 (26 Feb 1942), last blizzard turn. At last some fun to be had. Things are looking up!

Pelton has begun his move to his jump off points for his Snow O. I will lose 6 to 8 Cav units (3 gone already) in my picket line. They did their job. Recon and Cav have revealed a Pz/Mot split north of the Pripet of 6/3. South of the Pripet at least 11/11, a couple of Pz are unaccounted for, probably in the south or still on their way from Germany.

So clearly a southern attack is going to happen. Looking like a thrust to the north east from the Kiev region is on the cards to unhinge my line along the Berezina by advancing towards Gomel and possibly beyond. We are waiting. I have a major decision to make in the North. With his concentration in the south I am confident I can hold my lines in the north. I am very tempted to steal some more territory in the north. But that would mean leaving my trenches and putting my head in a noose if he were to break thru beyond Gomel.

Some eye candy for the Soviet team attached. Some Hitlerites got a little too cocky. Some Rumanians approaching the Crimea were sent packing as well. The joy of it all. I was worried my troops may have forgotten how to shoot after such a long and inactive winter :)

Overall very happy with the first snow turn. Pelton has launched an attack due north from Kiev on the Cherigov/Gomel line. So far a minor penetration. I am confident I can contain it. All Pz/Mot forces locations are known. 6/3 in the north and 13/11 in the south. No subtly with Herr Pelton. He seems to be intent on killing a few Cav div’s in the north, no great loss. I doubt I will build them back. I intend to build an unstoppable blunt instrument, a steam roller. Cavalry does not figure in the plan.

After restraining myself for the past 2 turns I could no longer hold back. I have made an attempt to hold Minsk. Comrade Stalin orders an advance from the Berezina line to Minsk (see green arrows), so be it. A series of a dozen or so Soviet attacks are successful just to the West of D and Z town (see red arrows), around 10,000 fascists are dispatched for the loss of only 5000 comrades.

"We are going to attack all night, and attack tomorrow morning..... If we are not victorious, let no one come back alive!" -- Patton WITE-Beta WITW-Alpha The Logistics Phase is like Black Magic and Voodoo all rolled into one.

Those early cav corps aren't great, but later on ( 1943 or 1944 ) they get to have about 160 tanks ( mostly medium ), so.....you might want to reconsider.

I am also concerned that you are going on the offensive; why not let him try to punch his way through your prepared locations instead of coming to get him. You have a good sized army but it's not at a quality level enough that you want to be trying to slam into him.

I am not concerned about what Pelton may or may not do anymore. I could lose 1 million troops and 500 AP and still be in the box seat. My army is huge and they are not ants. The attacks continue. This turn (T39) the Soviets inflicted 30K of axis casualties in assaults (24K German) for the loss of 25K brave comrades. Roll on summer I say. Pelton is going to cop an embarrassing defeat, his idea of retreating to Poland will go down as one of the worst ever. Still now that he can’t retreat anymore it’s a lot of fun trashing his troops. I still predict he will go turtle soon. His attack towards Gomel is going nowhere fast. His great snow O is somewhat of a fizzer, much like his 41 summer

Yes, Pelton is playing very strange when it come to this game. A Red scare seems to have caught him.

I can't see much sense in this axis in the swamps, there are not even any rail lines critical to his advance. Perhaps it was (is) aimed at Tula and Kursk, or maybe he envisioned to link up with his northern Panzer spearhead driving a wedge through Smolensk or so. Well, foggy it is. There is a huge infantry concentration around Riga, so he must be looking at LG as well.

Maybe you're right and can afford the losses, but the 42 Red Army is still a fragile thing, even 7M strong. Look at Terje's luck, he may just have cut a 1M chunk from such an anaconda that stuck its head out too far.

I just can't see him acheiving anything as long as I stay on my toes. Even when he goes turtle I will be able to spend all my AP on Corps in 1942. I will manage to attack somewhere. He will slowly bleed to death and I will roll in to Berlin in 1944. I am more confident than ever. I am looking forward to summer. My Red airforce is shooting down kraut bombers in droves. In one raid I had over 300 fighters intercept a force of 40 fighters and 40 bombers. He lost 30 odd bombers for not a single soviet a/c.

My Red airforce is shooting down kraut bombers in droves. In one raid I had over 300 fighters intercept a force of 40 fighters and 40 bombers. He lost 30 odd bombers for not a single soviet a/c.

Not a single Russian fighter shot down despite 40 German fighters in the area. That the aircraft model continues to be broken is quite evident. Hopefully they get around to fixing it at some point.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Michael T

Pelton is going to cop an embarrassing defeat, his idea of retreating to Poland will go down as one of the worst ever.

It is your AAR and far be it from me to be the "forum police", but talking trash on someone who can't even see what you are saying and/or defend themselves is pretty low. Keep the personal attack stuff out of it and stick to the topic of the game like you have in a lot of other areas.

Michael, I think everyone would agree that you are one of the best players that post here and so is Pelton. Pelton made the huge mistake of posting a lot of games AND using pretty much the same basic game plan for 1941 in game after game. You scouted him on it and absolutely took advantage of it, causing his 1941 offensive to be a total failure. Nothing wrong with that, but to belittle him over it, etc is not right.

I just wonder if you would have the same confidence in a rematch with Pelton should he want one and him having the experience of playing against you now. You may still win, but you would have to work at it a lot more. (I think the game is pretty much broken in the Russian's favor between really good opponents from what I have seen for the most part at this point in time).

In the mean time, Pelton is trying something totally different and it may not work (honestly, I hope it doesn't because if it is does, it means the game is total screwed up in general), but who knows. I guess we all get to see what happens.

My Red airforce is shooting down kraut bombers in droves. In one raid I had over 300 fighters intercept a force of 40 fighters and 40 bombers. He lost 30 odd bombers for not a single soviet a/c.

Not a single Russian fighter shot down despite 40 German fighters in the area. That the aircraft model continues to be broken is quite evident. Hopefully they get around to fixing it at some point.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Michael T

Pelton is going to cop an embarrassing defeat, his idea of retreating to Poland will go down as one of the worst ever.

It is your AAR and far be it from me to be the "forum police", but talking trash on someone who can't even see what you are saying and/or defend themselves is pretty low. Keep the personal attack stuff out of it and stick to the topic of the game like you have in a lot of other areas.

Klydon: this is not quite fair. Michael criticised the man's strategy, not the man himself. Those are two very different things. Trash talk is the latter, not the former.

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web exchange

Post: I am always fearful that when I put this game down on the table and people see the box-art they will think I am some kind of neo-Nazi

Reply: They already know you're a gamer. What other shame can possibly compare?

The written word can be a bear at times for intent, especially on a board that has a lot of non-native English speakers. To be fair, I would have said the same thing if Pelton had said something in his AAR on this as well, so I don't have an ax to grind with Michael.

Having said that, what he posted was totally unnecessary, did not add anything to the quality of his ARR and skirts dangerously close to being over the top.

In the mean time, Pelton is trying something totally different and it may not work (honestly, I hope it doesn't because if it is does, it means the game is total screwed up in general), but who knows. I guess we all get to see what happens.

That's what professors do after getting tenure: they can finally test the crazy theories that were too controversial to try while in their younger years. It's fun (for them, if not for their students)...and sometimes even works. I am not sure what Pelton is up to, but he is trying new things and I am looking forward to find out.

I think Pelton has simply under estimated the strength of my Inf Div's. 90% are all 100% TOE with 50 morale and 50 exp. CV 3 or more. Maybe he expected the usual 40 morale under strength CV 1 type dudes. I don't have any like that.

If his Mech units head in to open ground they are fair game for my reserves. He will need to be stacked 3 high to be safe. And the VVS is quite capable of effective ground support. This army has a bit of bite about it. 2.0 it is not, but not 1.0 either.